The Sunday Mail
Ministry of Truth with Cde Jason Swan Zhuwao
As I envision the global standing of our nation over the next decade, I am convinced Zimbabwe’s success or failure will largely be influenced by geopolitical factors.
Developments in the mainland to which we belong will inspire and contribute to our own progression.
In that regard, it is of importance to establish, primarily, the geographical location of this Zimbabwe territory.
GPS co-ordinates at 17,8333°S and 31,0500°E say we are in Africa.
The different shades of brown skin I observe from my office window crossing paths in the busy city streets resemble those of Africans.
Certainly, this swelter I constantly find myself in confirms I must be under the heat of the African sun.
Comrades and friends, we are in Africa!
An Africa where Nigerian-born investment banker and money manager Adebayo Ogunlesi made international headlines as the man who acquired London’s second-largest international airport in a £1,51 billion deal.
An urbanising Africa where Ethiopia has launched its first modern urban commuter rail service in Addis Ababa; a US$470m project making it the first fully-electrified train service in Sub-Saharan Africa.
An innovative Africa which has witnessed how a village in Rwanda, blessed with thousands of banana plants, has found an innovative way of transforming the leaves of the plants to create nappies and sanitary pads.
A gender sensitive Africa that has promoted Captain Koki Mutungi as Kenya’s first black female Dreamliner pilot and where a group of female students at Uganda’s Makerere University have created a mobile app coupled with a test kit known as a Her Health BVkit to detect vaginal bacteria.
An active Africa following in the steps of DRC’s Dikembe Mutombo who was inducted into the National Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame; and of course by Ghana who would have been in the World Cup semi-Finals if it wasn’t for Luis Suarez’ horrendous handball.
It is an Africa of increasing success stories; transcending the lines of gender, age and social status. A wealth of names to inspire us in a diverse range of fields.
Yet, dishearteningly, when I then listen to the conversations of those African Zimbabwean’s on our city streets, I do not hear motivated voices fit to belong to the same land as that of the aforementioned men and women.
Instead, I hear doubt in their plans, fear in their advancements, complaints in their challenges and insecurity in their abilities.
I’m perplexed and saddened as to how these faces fail to be encouraged by those that have demonstrated patently that Africa and Africans can succeed.
At the end of my lamentation I am forced to pose the question: is Zimbabwe not in Africa?
Do we not share the same land from which our fellow achievers dare to dream, dare to break through physical, psychological and metaphysical barriers?
None of these champions rose from a perfect society, a perfect economy, with an ideal upbringing in a quintessential administration.
To the contrary, internationally-acclaimed feats are coming from countries with ongoing civil unrest, infrastructural limitations, economic fluctuations and religious wars.
So what mental attitudes stop us from inundating global journals with our triumphs and victories? Are we not, in fact, better-suited to excellence because we have one of the best literacy rates in the continent, some of the best natural resources and — above all — a Government intent on empowering its people?
I do not discredit those that have brought acclaim to our nation. I applaud them.
They are a reminder that Zimbabweans can undoubtedly be legends when they so choose to be.
Zimbabweans, it appears, have isolated themselves into a little territory of lazy, self-pitying, blame-shifting individuals.
While reading this, many of you have already uttered an excuse for your failures.
We blame Government, we blame “the system”, we blame the pastor, we even blame our spouse.
There was and is nothing perfect about the situations that bore Africa’s success stories.
Each country faces its own crises, be they economic, political or social.
But as Africa looks to its future, there is now a shared hunger and understanding that the future belongs to us.
Africa is ready to take itself seriously. Are Zimbabweans?
Are we ready to grasp the true value of our heritage, our resources and our opportunities or are we still content with sleeping on the job, earning huge salaries we don’t deserve, waiting for Government to solve all our life problems, and finding excuses for every setback?
What innovation have you, as a graduate, introduced?
Are you as a business-owner bothering to look at value addition in your field of expertise?
That the future belongs to Africans is not a privilege all can access via their birth right.
No.
It belongs to Africans who are determined and prepared to work tirelessly to attain it.
